Feminists are, predictably, having what we in the deep South used to call a "hissy fit." They are reacting with rage and bombast to a letter published in The Daily Princetonian that advised coeds not to waste their college years where they are surrounded by a high "concentration of men who are worthy of you." Susan Patton, a graduate of the Princeton class of 1977, reminded the students that "the man you marry" will be "inextricably linked" to their future happiness. No. Really?

As a 20-year-veteran of the political arena in Washington, D.C., I have seen several generations of college graduates come to the nation's capital, where bright and intelligent men and women are overworked and underpaid to pursue their dream of making a mark on the world. Invariably, they are steeped in the current myths about "establishing their careers" and "becoming financially stable" before even thinking about marriage.

When they finally - and belatedly - get around to pursuing a life-time partner, many find, however, a dearth of desirable potential husbands or wives (i.e., eligible in terms of equal/superior intelligence and education with compatible values and good prospects as a friend, mate, and parent).

As each year passes, chasing professional advancement, the odds worsen for women of finding Mr. Right, even in this era of supposed gender equity. The cold hard facts are that men who've become established in their professions can usually much more easily than women find a pool of potential mates (usually younger) from which to choose.

My Grandmother, and her twin sister, came from Chester Illinois, to Wellesly College, (after taking a year of college prep to improve their Greek enough to be admitted) in 1920 to marry a Haavaad man. (Their grandfather was an 1869 Harvard Engineering graduate.) The sister did Okay, marrying a Harvard grad who later flew over the hump in Burma as a mercenary and made enough to live the rest of his life off real-estate investments, alternating homes between Wellesly, Cape Cod and Palm Beach. My grandmother was not so lucky, marrying an MIT grad who worked in a chemical plant in New Jersey and lived in New Jersey’s New York City suburbs.

3
posted on 04/06/2013 10:52:12 AM PDT
by Lonesome in Massachussets
(Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)

Small piece of irony. My grandmother was a Haavaad snob. To her a Haavaad man was the pinnacle of bachelor eligibility. Her grandfather, class of 1869, was a very successful businessman and they were probably the richest family in Randolph County, IL. She was something of a snob. The family fortune was based on a mill which her grandfather’s grandfather had started in the early Nineteenth Century, he was an uneducated but enterprising pioneer. His grandson, despite the time wasted at Harvard, appears in photographs to be a hard-scrapple westerner, a tough old coot, who probably never gave himself any airs, but he spoiled his granddaughters and they seemed to have acquired them quite independently.

7
posted on 04/06/2013 11:09:17 AM PDT
by Lonesome in Massachussets
(Doing the same thing and expecting different results is called software engineering.)

I met my husband working in retail on summer break. I was his boss! We decided to go on a date and got to talking and realized we were students at the same university! I’ll admit as a female I was sort of relieved because I knew from the start there was a chance he was “the one”, and I knew we weren’t going to afford much renting videos, although it was a fun job! It also told me he had ambition, working two jobs in the summer so he could go back to school in the fall. And he was later able to make enough so when we had kids I could stay home with them and not worry (to much) about money. Without my husband I could not have stayed home with the kids, and In college I didn’t think I’d want to stay home with the kids, but when the first was born I just couldn’t leave them until they were older, I wanted to raise them.

Here is an ad from a credit report company, in which the newly married young man lives in poverty because of his new wife’s debts. What wasn’t said, but is very common these days, is that college students are terrified of their own or their potential spouse defaulting on a student loan.

This is known as the MRS degree. One of the only reasons engineering majors ever find girls in college.

My father attended Engineering School in the late 1960s and has a story of a "scene" during a Calculus II lecture...

A young co-ed (major unknown) had interrupted the lecturer asking, in a snotty way, "Why do we need to learn this?".

The professor paused, and took the time to explain how there are certain engineering problems that require the techniques he was lecturing on.

The young girl then, arrogantly, came back saying "...but why do we have to learn this?!?"

The Prof, remained calm and then detailed out on the blackboard an example problem that directly related between engineering problem-solving, and the particular theory he was trying to lecture on. He finished his problem and the whole lecture hall sat there silent... most students grasped the approach that was used... but the young co-ed still was unsatisfied and blurted out "that still doesn't explain why we need to know this".

The lecturer facing the class, turned and put down the chalk at the bottom of the board, then turned around to face the entire lecture hall and simply says, "It would be wise to point out that not everyone in this class will be graduating with an Engineering Degree... in fact, it is my advice that some of you would be better off MARRYING an Engineer, rather than attending school to attempt to BE and Engineer".

The little twat got all indignant, gathered up her books and stormed out of the lecture hall.

Ah... could you possibly imagine what would happen if some professor said such a truism today?

My mother and father met in Union Station is DC on his way to Europe during WWII. She was from Minnesota and arrived that day for a new job in DC. He and she toured the city during the few weeks before the ship was loaded with some of their friends. Before he left for Europe he told her he was going to come home after the War and marry her. She laughed to her girl friends that night.

They corresponded during the war. When he was on his way back to Texas he contacted my grandfather to send her a train ticket from DC to Texas. The night she arrived in Texas they were married in his parents dining room. She had never met a single relative until that night.

They were married 66 years. An amazing couple that everyone in the community loved. We lost her about 6 months ago. (It still hurts)

Would a young woman be better off with a husband who is an unattractive, condescending, unfit slob BUT who is a Princeton graduate as opposed to an enlisted man recovering from his battle wounds at Walter Reed? I think most of us would have a very definitive answer here, Mrs. Patton, and you probably wouldn’t like it.

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